Panoramic photography often employs specialized cameras, equipment and/or software, to capture a sequence of images that are reconstructed into a single image that takes the form of a wide strip with an elongated field of view. Panoramic photography is sometimes known as wide format photography. Typically, a panoramic image shows a field of view that is greater than that of a film camera equipped with a wide angle lens. And a typical film camera equipped with a wide angle lens can generally capture an image with a field of view that covers about 90 degrees across the diagonal of the captured image, e.g., a 35 millimeter film camera with a 22 degree lens can capture such an image. One way to capture a panoramic image is to mount a film camera on a tripod and as the camera is physically rotated about its axis, a succession of images of a scene are taken that are subsequently stitched together by physically cutting and pasting together strips of exposed film where the boundaries between the edges of the film are carefully aligned. In some cases, a wider than usual strip of film can be used with a film camera that employs special movable or stereo optics. In other film cameras, conventional format film, such as 35 millimeter, can be masked during the exposure in the camera to provide a wide aspect or panoramic effect.
Recently, the benefits of electronic photography have led to the general acceptance of digital cameras, which, unlike their film-based counterparts, store captured images in a digital memory such as flash memory. And some digital cameras can also provide a “panorama” feature, which allows a user of the digital camera to capture a sequence of adjacent images that are subsequently “stitched” together into a single image with a wide coverage of field. For example, some digital cameras with a panoramic feature can interface with a personal computer that provides software to externally join together two or more images at their edge boundaries to generate a single image with a wide panoramic format for display on the personal computer. And other digital cameras can employ internal software for in-camera stitching of multiple images into a single image with a wide panoramic effect. However, in-camera stitching based on software processes alone is often hampered by a relatively poor alignment of the images and a relatively long period of time to compose an image having a wide panoramic format based on a plurality of captured images of a scene.